This is the last Smallville post, honest.
Oh, sure, you could settle for reading some lesser comic site, with useless junk like “reviews” and “current news” and “interesting content.” But only I — I — have the courage to dare bring you a third post discussing Smallville. Can your heart handle the excitement?
“During seasons 2 and three I kept wishing that one of the pay-offs for watching all the way through might be that Chloe gets put in witness protection or something and takes the name Lois Lane.”
I think a number of people thought sort of along the same lines…including me, half-jokingly suggesting that eventually she’d have to take a “pen name” or something (perhaps to separate herself from her tabloid-esque reporting) for the Planet. You know, “Chloe Sullivan” — “Chloe S.” — “Chloes” — “Chlois” — “Lois” — well, that works better speaking it than writing it, but maybe she would have compressed her real name like that, then grabbed “Lane” from, I don’t know, a street sign or something, and vee-ola, “Lois Lane.”
I have a rich fantasy life.
Michael-Sensei is in Japan, and he says he’s a few seasons behind over there (where he just endured the witchcraft episodes, the poor guy). But he also says (and if the the kanji in his comment does strange things to your browser, I apologize)
“…The series is called ‘ヤング・スーパーマン’ or ‘Young Superman’ over here. I wonder if DC’s lawyers thought of that to get around the Superboy thing.”
Maybe that’s part of it (someone more familiar with the ins and outs of what DC does and does not want to do with Superboy can chime in here, if they wish), but I seem to remember hearing that there was some concern whether folks would “get” that this was about a pre-Superman Clark Kent. (A couple of the titles in other countries use the name “Superman” as well). I really don’t know. I do like the name “Young Superman,” though perhaps it promises a bit more than the show itself actually delivers.
Anonymous cracks wise about Superman’s secret identity in the show
“And if all else fails, there’s time-travel, or the Super-Kiss he used on Lois. Can’t wait to see him use it on Lex in the series finale!”
You know, they’ve got to break that sexual tension between Lex and Clark somehow.
Old Bull Lee puts in a third appearance (he’s a trooper!) to explain
“I might be wrong, but I thought Clark went to college for a few months (including a short stint on the football team), then dropped out because decided he needed to help out back on the farm.”
That sounds right. I don’t go back to rewatch the show, and…I don’t recall every single detail. But I’m sure it was something like that. Which reminds me…now that Clark is working at the Planet, who’s running the farm? Is Clark just doing all the chores at super-speed before leaving for Metropolis in the morning, and not worrying about “keeping up appearances,” leaving the neighbors to wonder how the work’s getting done on the Kent farm?
Pal Nat gets in a joke, then says he
“…Stopped watching the show after about season 3”
You know, I think that’s about as far along as I got into Lois and Clark before it just got too dumb. Just thought I’d mention that.
Mr. Allison Blaire is awesome
“I think ‘Smallville’ Clark should start wearing the glasses and fedora in his everyday guise, like the old school Siegel and Shuster version, when he’s making the transition to full fledged Superman. Or maybe he can gel his hair back like Dean Cain”
Oh, God, Clark in a fedora. I’m not going to be happy now until I see this regularly happen on the show. And since Dean Cain’s been brought up…I always thought Cain as Clark and as Superman looked reasonably different enough to make the dual identity thing work. ‘Course, plenty of time in the make-up chair helps, but still….
Ah, Laura clears it up for us
“To answer your college question, Clark dropped out after his dad died. That was season 5.
“Lois didn’t graduate high school, went to college after Clark had Lex pull some strings for her, then got kicked out for drinking or something, all of which happened way back in season 4.”
Ah, okay. Thanks, Laura!
Former employee Josh chimes in
“I’m not sure if you covered this, but any hints that he’s using his super mass hypnosis?”
No, not yet, but I suspect hypnosis of some kind will be part of whatever likely Jor-El-caused “whammy” is going to make the Clark/Superman ID probable, as I mentioned a couple of posts back…assuming this ID thing is even going to be given closure on the show.
Suedenim has some good things to say, including
“Better [revealing your secret to your friends], IMO, than have everyone think you’re this secretive and unreliable weirdo who *clearly* has *some* deep dark secret, but won’t confide in anyone.”
Quite a whole lot of Clark’s problems stem from not being honest about who he is…he has good reason, certainly, but had he owned up to Lex early on, it seems to me Lex might not have gone down his eventual villainous path. The secret-keeping just seemed to feed Lex’s continued obsession, so Clark had a hand in creating his own arch-nemesis…which is in line with the comics (well, the Silver Age version) to a certain extent.
Your (my?) Obedient Serpent corrects me on Clark’s actual position at the Planet (copy boy), and also says
“Aaron Ashmore was BORN to play Jimmy Olsen.”
Come to think of it…physically I think he comes closest in appearance to the classic version of the character. I think Ashmore’s version of the character is a little more together than the one from the comics, however.
“OK, I try usually to avoid reading about any “new” Smallville developments, as I am watching the series fresh on DVD and just now have gotten to season 4, but I enjoyed these comments and your replies nonetheless”
Thanks, Pj! I worried about going on about this as long as I did, but, hey, people seem to be interested in talking about it, and others are finding it good readin’ as well. (But I think this’ll be the last part, anyway…no need to push my luck!)
Pj also notes, from personal experience, that a college degree isn’t necessarily required to enter a career in journalism, re: my concern over all the folks on the show who didn’t appear to finish college but went on to successful jobs anyway. So I guess Clark and Lois’ positions on the Planet are at least plausible.
Juisarian says
“I think that’s the most Supes we’re going to get in our Smallville for the near future – this show is all about infinitely approaching Superman. It’s a surface tension which they can’t always maintain and still make the show worth watching.”
Yeah…despite my wish for more fun superhero action on the show, actually putting Clark into the suit would violate the spirit of Smallville. It’s not about Clark fighting crime as Superman…it’s about Clark learning how to become Superman. Though I still think as the ultimate payoff for the series, we need to see at least a little Superman in Action…er, action, if only just for part of the last episode.
Tomy, he of the first comment for these Smallville posts, notes
“…I’m more of a fan of silver age Superboy/Legion era, where he picked it all up as a kid and then was suddenly superman. i guess that’s why this transitional phase the show is stuck on grates me a little.”
That’s one of the things that sort of bothers me a little, though I realize the realities of having to fill so many hours of TV each season. I sit there watching the show, and thinking to myself, “boy, they’re making Superman’s origin so unnecessarily convoluted,” with all the crystals and conspiracies and Indian cave paintings(!) and is Jor-El evil or not, and how’d Lex’s father get involved in this, and wait, Green Arrow is a cast member now?
Okay, moving on to one last comments section, from yesterday’s post…I’m only going to note a couple of the remarks, to show you all some mercy.
Suedenim returns with some more info re: the “Smallville” nickname
“The question comes up periodically, and the last time I saw it, it was conclusively shown to have shown up first on the animated show.”
Okay, I Googled it, and over at The Fortress of Soliloquy, there’s this comment going over the history of the name, and agreeing with Suedenim’s note. I could have sworn it appeared in the mid-’80s revamp, but looking through my issues of the Man of Steel miniseries (which kicked off the revamp) I didn’t spot it. Lois did repeatedly call Clark “Kent,” which felt a bit on the harsh side.
But I really do like the nickname “Smallville” for Clark. It’s dismissive in a goofy but not terribly insulting way, and plays into the perceived differences between Clark and Superman.
“Would it be worth it to netflix the old seasons and catch up?”
Ooh, I don’t know. Maybe you can pick ‘n’ choose, just watching the ones that look interesting to you. KryptonSite has an extensive episode guide you can check out. Overall I like this show, for all its problems…it’s mindless action entertainment with an attractive cast and only occasionally dips to offensively stupid levels (as opposed to its usual level of inoffensively stupid). Your mileage may vary, as they say. If you do decide to watch all the episodes, at least skip the vampire one. Woo boy.
Okay, and for the sake of my sanity and yours, that’s the last post on the show for a while. At least until they decide to end it, at which point I may do a final wrap-up. So thanks for reading all that, and thanks for your interesting comments and questions and such.
So, aside from Smallville…what’d I miss? Say, I hear that Bat-Manga book is somethin’ else…anyone talking about it out there?
